CdA Hydro race has neighbors worried

“I’m one of the few people that get in this lake every day,” Evalyn Adams said as she swam in Lake Coeur d’Alene at Silver Beach. She has property adjacent to the site of the Diamond Cup hydroplane races that will take place on Labor Day weekend.Kathy Plonka, SR photo

Frank Addeman grew up with the Diamond Cup in the late 1950s and early ’60s and has good memories of the boats streaking across Lake Coeur d’Alene.

“When I was a kid I used to collect all the (commemorative) buttons,” he said. “I loved the hydroplane races and I was sad when they had to leave.”

With the races about to return after a 45-year lull, Addeman is among a few residents who will have the best views of the turbine-powered hulls reaching speeds of 200 mph about 450 feet from the shoreline.

His house sits on the bluff above Silver Beach, and like many of his neighbors, Addeman can watch the Labor Day weekend heats from his deck above or his dock below.

But he also has had some concerns – as have others who live above East Coeur d’Alene Lake Drive just outside city limits – about traffic flow, crowd control, trespassing and liability insurance. Some residents also were surprised last week to see trees along the shoreline being trimmed to improve spectator viewing of the race course. Read more.Scott Maben, SR